WHY THEY ARE ALL FEMALE

The Cilessians were not always an all female race. Long ago there were males as well, and though the Cilessians in general craved battle, the males inherited this attribute much stronger. And so, it came to the one Cilessian male, Balbaros. Bearing an uncanny and destructive power, Balbaros nearly eradicated the Cilessians home world in his evil wake. He was eventually sealed inside a star, and no one has spoke of him since. By royal decree of the Empress ExOdessa Aubrey (Vanilla’s mother) All Cilessian births would be controlled. The Empress called on the Aid of the forbidden Arch Magi to place a curse on all new borns of the Cilessian race so that they would be born female. Men slowly died out, and after generations past only females remain...with only ONE exception...heh.
(More on the Balbaros incident later)


BREEDING

All Cilessians by tradition are full bread. This is because of Cilessian pride. They don't mate with other races in belief that all other races are inferior physically. Unfortunately this feeling cannot be helped as it is etched into their genetic structure. One could go as far as to say that this "Pride" is a natural instinct, and to a degree, the source of their highly renowned interminability.

BABIES

Cilessians engage in sexual activity on a regular basis, a side effect of their accelerated Metabolism. However, they only have children in seasons. It’s almost instinctual, as if they were programmed as a whole to reproduce at certain times a year.

Many of you have asked how two Female Cilessians reproduce: A fair question if I’ve ever heard one. Well, it’s not TOO unlike how they would in a normal male, female couple. When two Cilessians love each other, they just decide which of the two is going to bear the children. Sometimes both Parents bear children. The couple receives a blessing by the Temple of Praxis Domina that allows them to impregnate their partners. It is a technique passed onto the Cilessian race by the Arch magi who cursed them in the first place. (An act of pity on their part)

I’m SO not going into how that works. I’ll let you guys “figure” that out. Just deal with it. I’m trying to get away from “genetics” and the sci fi stuff

The event of the blessing is a big deal, and celebrations are usually held for those females who will carry the next generation of Cilessians. Almost immediately after the calibration of fertility, the couples Mate.

When pregnant, Cilessian females need to feed almost continuously. This is because after the third month, they lay an egg rather than a live born child. The walls of the egg are lined with a protein rich substance capable of nourishing the child for the rest of its developmental period (hence the eating a lot.). The infant accesses this nourishment via umbilical cord (Hence why they have belly buttons). In the beginning the egg is pliable, and is a pale green color. The size of the egg is roughly the size of an eggplant. After a while, the outside starts to harden, and changes into a variant of greens, with swirling rings of color around it. By this time the outer shell is extremely hard, and the egg has grown to a size that resembles a human fetus, encircled by a shell. Cilessian ‘s spend another 5 months in this stage.

. During the final month, if tended, the egg’s outer shell begins to soften into something that resembles plant leaves. At this point the mother is left alone with the egg. She will then wrap her tail around the egg and hold the egg close to her. (The mother is usually nude when accomplishing this task) It is still uncertain what causes the child to react to this, even to this day. When fully developed the egg starts to emit a slight glow, indicating that the child will be born soon. The egg then “Blooms” almost as a flower would, revealing the baby inside.

Because of the longer development period, Newborn Cilessians are a little more developed than that of Humans or other species.

EGG STASIS

If a mother does not tend the egg after this stage, it goes into a “Stasis” mode. In which it crystallizes itself until a mother tends to it. A stasis may last as long as 1000 years before the egg is irretrievable.

Life span: Cilessians live as long as the will to fight exists within them. They are born from eggs. After that, their development is not too unlike that of a human's. However, after puberty, the Cilessians' aging process slows down greatly. Some have been known to live well over one thousand years.